Yeah, but Godzilla sucked serious ass.. The Amityville Horror didn't..

Exactly.

With a few exception movies, yes. Often times when a movie seriously bombs hard the theater just has it take the 10-10:30 show of the big kids movie or a movie playing on two screens. Anyways, the more time goes on the more I'm thinking that The Interpreter, A Lot Like Love, and Kung Fu Hustle could break out to some extents. The marketplace is EMPTY right now, and all of these movies are batting positive review wise. Though The Interpreter is almost a certainty to perform the best thanks to the widest demographic appeal (including adults who have had very little post-Oscar season to see, other then The Upside of Anger and Hostage), the solid ads and a premise that is attracting a rather decent amount of attention, I think it could mimic Man on Fire's opening at this point, although if they had the same rating I'm certain MOF would have done better. I'd give it about 23 million though. A Lot Like Love has a huge disadvantage in that it faces a horde of other romantic-comedies and films with strong appeal towards women, but it looks cute and has been getting damn good reviews, so I could see it surprisingly mildly with 13 million. As for Kung Fu Hustle, I'm a bit on the fence right now, but with all the hype I've been hearing I'm betting it's headed for a damn good weekend. The fact that the market is dry of a strong action movie should definitely help. Overall, I'd say that the crazy trailers and great reviews should really turn up the curiosity level to the tune of 15 million. As for King's Ransom... well, I've heard almost nothing about that one. I'll guess 4.5 million, but I'll be going much lower on the derby just to play it safe.

1. The Interpreter 23 million
2. Kung Fu Hustle 15 million
3. A Lot Like Love 13 million
4. The Amityville Horror 11 million
5. Sahara 9 million
6. Fever Pitch 5.5 million
7. King's Ransom 4 million
8. Sin City 3.6 million
9. Guess Who 3.3 million
10. Robots 2.3 million

they require it yes BUT only require 1 copy of the movie...so if you got 3 prints and the movie bombs you can drop 2 of them its 2nd week, or you can even go as far as splitting the last print with another movie...there are all kinds of ways around "keeping" the movie

Im thinking Kung Fu hustles main problem is that its a subtitled action comedy.

Action Comedies are strictly teen territory, most adults will be heading for The Interpreter anyway; so the question lies how many teenagers are willing to go see a subtitled action comedy?

Hero et all had the Wuxia built in; meaning it attracted an audience very much willing to read subtitles; but a teen subtitled film? Not so sure.

Hold on this movie is R-Rated? That may just be what kills it altogether; where on earth is the audience going to come from? I hardly see over 25's rushing out to see a foreign action comedy with subtitles, especially with the new Pollack picture out
I doubt it can pass $10m with that limitation to be honest; it even cancels the chance of doing some teen buisness.

Relatively final predictions
1. The Interpreter - $21.4 million
2. A Lot Like Love - $10.7 million
3. Kung Fu Hustle - $9.8 million
4. The Amityville Horror - $9.5 million
5. Sahara - $8.8 million
6. Fever Pitch - $5.5 million
7. King's Ransom - $5.1 million
8. Sin City - $4.0 million
9. Guess Who - $2.9 million
10. Robots - $2.5 million

Libs; quite high for Fever Pitch; im pretty sure that its going to drop a considerable amount of theaters this weekend.

This is one of those weekends where I'm glad I don't do this regularly anymore cause it's so hard to call.

Interpreter -- lots of ads and hype but Penn/Kidman aren't really draws. Will the sense of quality and being a thriller be enough to lure people? 23m

A Lot like Love -- looks stupid but amiably stupid, I'd rather watch this than most of Ashton's movies if I was forced to watch one. 18m with a chance to shock and win the weekend.

King's Ransom -- Black oriented movies have been doing well all year but not so much the more silly ones so this one is hard to call. 9m

Kung Fu Hustle -- Sony pictures has been on a roll, and this has great ads, but it will rely on a targeted audience turning out, more than mass appeal like most pictures. 7m

Interpreter 16.3 million
Kung Fu Huste 11.0 million
King's Ransom 9.0 million
Alot Like Love 8.5 million

My Predictions
"--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This weekend Ashton Kutcher plops out another film, Nicole Kidman gets all serious and becomes confused about her accentality [and hair colour], and Kung Fu Hustle invites even more horrible puns from box office followers. Also coming up the rear is King's Ransom, a project which makes me stop and ask "who the fuck comissioned that?" Four new projects slide out of the studio poopshoot into the box office; and only one is likely to have any lasting impact; the rest will dissolve into an afterthought."

Final Predictions

1. THE INTERPRETER - $24.6
2. A LOT LIKE LOVE - $14.8
3. SAHARA - $10.1
4. THE AMITYVILLE HORROR - $9.9
5. KUNG FU HUSTLE - $8.4
6. FEVER PITCH - $5.4
7. SIN CITY - $4.8
8. KING'S RANSOM - $4.3
9. GUESS WHO - $3.6
10. ROBOTS - $2.9

Hollywood Reporter on weekend's box office:

"Rated PG-13, "Interpreter" will bow in 2,758 theaters and should gross in the high-teen millions with a chance of getting into the low 20s.

...

"A Lot Like Love," starring Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet. Kutcher, with his comedy "Guess Who" still in the marketplace, is the flavor of the month among preteens and could score well at the boxoffice once again -- but most likely with a smaller audience than "Guess." The PG-13 film is appealing primarily to young girls and will bow on 2,502 screens. Its story line revolves around Kutcher and Peet as a couple who meet time and again over the course of seven years, wondering whether their friendship could be something more. An opening in the double-digit millions would be respectable for this romantic comedy from director Nigel Cole ("Calendar Girls"). Colin Patrick Lynch wrote the screenplay.

New Line Cinema will bow the PG-13 "King's Ransom," starring Anthony Anderson as a millionaire who plots his own kidnapping so his wife can't take his fortune during their divorce. Donald Faison, Jay Mohr and Kellita Smith co-star in the film that primarily targets black audiences. "Ransom" is being compared to last year's "Breakin' All the Rules," which starred Jamie Foxx and opened to $5 million, or "The Cookout," which also opened to $5 million. The film is from director Jeff Byrd and screenwriter Wayne Conley.

The X factor for today's wide openers is the expansion of Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle" from Sony Pictures Classics. The China/ Hong Kong actioner has had quite an opening, grossing a per-screen average of $38,460 when it bowed April 8 on seven screens. The film, which has done $66 million in overseas business, dropped only 8% its second week to bring its total cume to an impressive $622,655. This weekend, "Hustle" will expand to about 2,500 locations, and the positive buzz on the film could give it some significant play at the boxoffice. Some insiders place its weekend gross in the $10 million-$12 million range, taking a significant chunk out of both "Ransom" and "Love.""

I think yes.

But I have seen some bombs go down to only a few daily shows in that second week.

1. The Interpreter - $19.3 million
2. Kung Fu Hustle - $11.2 million
3. The Amityville Horror - $10.3 million
4. A Lot Like Love - $10 million
5. Sahara - $8.5 million
6. Fever Pitch - $5.5 million
7. Sin City - $3.5 million
8. Guess Who - $3.4 million
9. King's Ransom - $3 million
10. Robots - $2.5 million

I went a bit conservative on Kung-Fu Hustle. It could do more, but also, it could underperform. I'm right in the middle.

My Final Predictions

The Interpreter- $20.2M
A Lot Like Love - $11.2M
The Amityville Horror - $10.3M
Sahara - $8.8M
Kung Fu Hustle - $7M
King's Ransom - $5.7M
Fever Pitch - $5.4M
Sin City - $3.9M
Guess Who - $2.7M
Robots - $2.4M
Beauty Shop - $2M

King's Ransom is this week's derby killer. I expect less than 3 million.

It probably will be.

Though I see around $4-5M for it, I can see it going very low.

King's Random reminds me of The Jacket, which had an expectation of $4-5M but only ended with $2.7M and a 2K PTA.

My predictions have been sent and will appear in the front page tomorrow. Some of you will be surprized at some of my opinions, while others will be happy if I'm right.

Derby....
1. The Interpreter................. 18.4 million
2. The Amityville Horror..........10.3 million
3. Kung Fu Hustle...................9.2million
4. A Lot Like Love...................9.1 million
5. Sahara.............................. 8.3 million
6. Fever Pitch.........................5.4 million
7. King's Ransom....................3.4 million
8. Sin City..............................3.3 million
9. Guess Who.........................2.9 million
10. Robots..............................2.5 million

Final Predictions:
1. The Interpreter - $18.7 million NEW
2. The Amityville Horror - $10.1 million (-57%)
3. Kung Fu Hustle - $8.6 million (+3368%)
4. Sahara - $8.4 million (-36%)
5. A Lot Like Love - $8.3 million NEW
6. Fever Pitch - $4.7 million (-45%)
7. Sin City - $3.8 million (-43%)
8. Guess Who - $2.8 million (-43%)
9. King's Ransom - $2.6 million NEW
10. Robots - $2.4 million (-34%)

I think Amityville's performance this weekend could be around 11 mill. I don't think it will drop a huge amount. As for the Interpreter, tough one to call. It is a film that the market place hasn't seen for quite a while, so bsed on that alone, I think it'll open with about 18 mill.

Bom's and wokj's official forecasts are up:

Brandon Gray
Interpreter - 18.5m
Amityville Horror - 11m
Kung Fu Hustle - 10.9m
A Lot Like Love - 8.2m
Sahara - 8m
Fever Pitch - 5m
King's Ransom - 3.3m
Sin City - 3.4m
Guess Who - 3.0m
Robots - 2.4m

Scott Vasquez
Interpreter - 20.0m
Amityville Horror - 10.8m
Kung Fu Hustle - 10.5m
A Lot Like Love - 10.1m
Sahara - 8.6m
Fever Pitch - 5.3m
King's Ransom - 4.0m
Sin City - 3.7m
Guess Who - 3.0m
Robots - 2.6m